International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Cemaco was an indigenous leader in Darien Province in sixteenth-century Panama who led his men in the struggle against the Spanish colonialists under the leadership of Vasco Nuñez de Balboa. In 1510 Cemaco and around 500 of his men clashed with the Spanish in an attempt to defend their territory. In this violent battle Cemaco lost a lot of his men and had to abandon his main town, which the Spaniard Vasco Nuñez de Balboa then called Santa María La Antigua, and which became the first Spanish town on the American mainland. Cemaco's first defeat was to mark the beginning of continuous battles by one of the most important Darien caciques (headchiefs) who, to defend the land against the Spanish, allied himself with other regional caciques such as Abenamaque, Abibeiba, Abraiba, Dabaiba, Eclava, and Zururiaga. On several occasions Cemaco and his allies attacked colonial expeditions in the area, who were on the search for gold. There are three larger battles recounted in the chronicles in which Cemaco and 400 fighters attacked colonial expeditions. In one, Francisco Pizarro was injured, and on another occasion in 1512 Cemaco organized his allies in the area of Río Negro to ambush the colonialists and attack them so violently that they retreated to La Antigua. Cemaco's last documented attempt to reconquer his capital, at night by sea and land with 5,000 fighters, was in 1512. They installed ... log in or subscribe to read full text